Drive You Wild: A Love Between the Bases Novel Read Online Free Page A

her eyes went wide with an expression of horror. “You . . . no . . . um . . .” Clapping her hand over her mouth, she gave a peal of laughter that raked at his pride like a burning torch.
    “Say no more.” An unfamiliar emotion coursed through him—the humiliation of rejection. Girls didn’t turn him down. Most often, they came after him in the first place. He opened the car door and swung himself onto the pavement. “Do me a favor, Paige. Next time you see a man with a gun, drive the other way.”
    “Wait, I didn’t mean to laugh. It’s just that—”
    He held up a hand to stop her right there. “Thanks for the ride, and the rescue. Appreciated.”
    She opened her mouth as if she had something important to say, then changed her mind and pressed her lips together. Perfect, curving lips. And damn if he didn’t want to kiss her, even if she had just laughed at him. Light spilling from the hotel entrance fell across her face, turning her skin luminous.
    He wanted her.
    Not going to happen.
    He turned away and stepped into the shadow cast by the overhang. Idiot that he was, he’d given her his shirt. This close, she might see the damning marks on his back. He needed to put some distance between them, so he walked quickly toward the hotel’s front doors. Beyond the glass he saw the familiar check-in counter, the coffee setup, the dusty ficus tree in a planter.
    “Thank you for the T-shirt,” she called after him.
    Without turning around, he flashed a peace sign.
    “Stay out of trouble,” she added wryly, as if she knew trouble was part of Trevor’s DNA. Smart girl.
    O h. My. God. That was one extremely potent male. Paige put a hand to her heart, feeling it gallop like a runaway horse. The amount of adrenaline coursing through her system right now would fuel an entire squad of sprinters.
    On autopilot, she drove away from the hotel, barelynoticing the familiar terrain of Kilby—tidy little stucco homes, the restored brickwork of the downtown area, strip malls, and, as she reached the outskirts of town, the ranch lands. Her destination.
    “Jerome, I had no idea a baseball player could be like that .”
    Not even her ex-husband, a professional basketball player, had prepared her for the sight of Trevor Stark without a shirt.
    “Did you hear what he said about a famous ballplayer waiting to fulfill my every desire? I swear, Jerome, I almost lost it. He probably thought I was nuts. Do you think he did? I guess if he saw me talking to you he’d really think I was nuts. No offense, kitty-cat.”
    Her cat gave a soft meow. Now that the interloper was gone, Jerome lurched out of his carrier onto the backseat, then climbed into the passenger seat and curled up in his usual spot. They’d been driving this way for three days, ever since her Alitalia flight from Rome had landed at John F. Kennedy Airport. She hadn’t even stopped for a visit with her two college roommates who lived in New York. She’d gone right to the car rental counter and booked this Cavalier. A more sensible idea would have been to fly to Houston, but she needed the time to acclimate to the United States. To her American self. Her old self, before she’d crashed and burned.
    Out on Highway 60, she peered through the darkness in search of the sign for her father’s ranch. Her stomach tightened when she spotted it. She’d been hoping to surprise him at the stadium because he was always in a better mood there. Or at least that had been true three years ago, when she’d last seen him.
    But she’d waited too long in the parking lot, trying to screw up her courage, and then a man with a BB gunand a ballplayer with incredible green eyes had ruined that plan.
    Spotting the sign for Bullpen Ranch, she turned off the highway onto the private road that led to the ranch. The car rattled over a cattle grate. In five minutes she’d be at her father’s door.
    For a desperate moment, she contemplated turning the car around and taking Trevor Stark up on